


Close-Knit Trio

by ChristmasRivers



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Knitting, M/M, Polyamory, Threesome - M/M/M, Valentine's Day, brief mentions of sexual activity but no explicit scenes sorry guys ;3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-22 00:57:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6064834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristmasRivers/pseuds/ChristmasRivers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“What in the world is that? Are you knitting?“ Levi asked as he kicked off his shoes.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>  <em>"Yeah. He does that sometimes,” Eren nodded, shooting Levi a long-suffering glance over his shoulder</em></p><p> </p><p>  <em>“Shut up; don’t make it sound you’re trying to apologize for me. Yes, I’m knitting. Is there something wrong with that?”</em></p><p> </p><p>Jean decides to start knitting again out of the blue. When he starts to forgo sleep, food, school work—even sex—to work on the project, Levi and Eren start to worry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close-Knit Trio

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a tumblr ask prompt, "Anonymous said: Ererijean, fluffy"

“What in the world is that? Are you knitting?“ Levi asked as he kicked off his shoes.

"Yeah. He does that sometimes,” Eren nodded, shooting Levi a long-suffering glance over his shoulder.

“Shut up; don’t make it sound you’re trying to apologize for me," Jean spat out, reaching over to flick Eren between the eyes. "Yes, I’m knitting. Is there something wrong with that?” Jean growled, refusing to look at either of his boyfriends, neither the one sitting on the couch beside him nor the one that had just come in through the front door of behind him.

Levi shook his head as he walked up behind the couch, then kissed each of them briefly on the top of the head, first Jean and then Eren. Jean resolutely ignored the affection and sank in on himself, but Eren craned his head back to beam up at the older man and hooked a hand behind Levi’s neck to bring him down and return the kiss. Jean tried to ignore what he could see from the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t tamp down a swell of affection at the sight of his boyfriends sharing a moment. _Fuck them for being so fucking cute,_ he thought sourly.

Once his greetings with Eren had been exchanged, Levi turned back to his surly boyfriend, leaned over the back of the couch and slung an arm over Jean’s shoulder. “No, there’s nothing wrong with knitting; I just didn’t know you could.” Jean’s face flushed and he nodded. That would make sense; he hadn’t knitted in a long while, not since high school really, and he had never mentioned it.

Levi peered down at the mess of **fluffy,** rainbow-dyed yarn and reached over with his freehand to thumb through the [pleasant, muted hues](https://40.media.tumblr.com/94f90e209e0e05a322adeb4f4f03b3c4/tumblr_inline_o3j5j9cD5q1tpj153_500.jpg). “So what is this going to be, exactly?” Levi asked as Jean finished off the row.

Jean didn’t respond, instead counting out loud the many stitches jammed onto one of the long needles as a pretext to ignore the question. Eren saved him the trouble of trying to come up with an answer by choosing that moment to ask, “How many stitches are in that thing anyway? Haha! Those have to be the longest needles I’ve ever seen. Shouldn’t you have used a circular needle instead?”

Yes, he should have, but Jean didn’t like using circular needles for straight edged pieces and Eren knew it—he had been teasing Jean about it since Jean had taught him knitting basics back in high school, back when they had first started dating—but damn him if he was going to admit it. “Yeah, it’s a fuckton of stitches, and yeah, they’re the longest needles you can get. Give me a break,” he groused heatedly, using the end of one to poke the side of Eren’s head none too gently. Eren laughed and darted away to avoid further jabs, and Levi kissed Jean’s cheek and went off to get changed, but neither made any further comments about the knitting, neither repeated their inquiries as to what he was making, and Jean volunteered nothing. And they all left it at that.

\---

For the next couple of weeks the sight of Jean toiling away at that enormous knit was ubiquitous in their little apartment. Every free moment Jean could get he spent grinding through those seemingly endless rows, sometimes working long into the night and even getting up early on some days to work on the project before classes.

When it got to the point that Jean started skipping meals to work on the thing and Levi suspected he might have been knitting instead of studying for some of his classes, he and Eren tried talk to Jean again about the project, only to be met with sullen rebuffs and angry snaps of “let me worry about it” and “what do you care?” He apologized later, but Eren and Levi worried about Jean’s strange behavior and the laughable strain that a knitting project, of all things, seemed to be putting on their relationship.

They got the sense that Jean might be working on something for the two of them—he was awfully secretive about what it was and why he was so intent on knitting his fingers to the bone to race through the piece—but Jean ignored all suggestions to take his time or not to worry so much about trying to finish whatever it was before he revealed it’s purpose.

Only after Jean at least agreed to sleep, eat and do all of his schoolwork did they finally let him be and silently agreed to avoid the topic whenever he was around.

\---

By the time the project was long enough to fall into Jean’s lap, Eren was guessing it was either an oversized scarf or a rainbow circus tent, but Levi pointed out that it was probably a blanket or afghan of some kind.

\---

Around the time the supposed-afghan reached Jean’s knees, Levi and Eren noticed that he was making a practice of stretching his hands and wrists after every row, the weight of piece starting to make the task of knitting into a literal workout for it’s maker. Eren joked to Levi that once Jean was finished, he would be a pro at any job involving his hands, particularly handjobs, and that he was looking forward watching those “cabled” forearms “yarn over” his cock. Levi just shook his head.

\---

One night after the piece had reached floor length, Levi and Eren tried to convince Jean to cuddle and makeout with them to no avail. That was the first time Jean had ever completely refused Eren’s touch or Levi’s affection, but somehow Jean managed to resist both at the same time and sat stolidly on his end of the couch knitting away like some sort of curmudgeonly old grandma while Levi and Eren made out with a vengeance beside him. Levi felt irritated and displeased by his other boyfriend’s choice of priorities—and he could tell from Eren's brutal kisses and insistent hands that his other boyfriend did too—all the way up until the point that Levi noticed Jean squirming out of the corner of his eye.

Bringing Eren to completion with his hand a little while later, Levi let himself sag back against the couch while Eren buried his face into Levi's chest. Waiting to catch his breath, Levi glanced over at Jean again to find that the other man had gathered up all the woven strands and piled them onto his lap. Jean did this sometimes to relieve some of the weight on the needles, but from the way color was splashed across his cheeks and the slight tremble to his hands as he threw the yarn over the needles, Levi suspected Jean had other reasons for burying himself in his project this time.

When their breathing finally calmed and Levi tugged Eren up and sent him off to start the shower, Levi quietly invited Jean to join them. But Jean kept his eyes down and just as softly replied that he wanted to get through a few more rows before bed. Levi wasn’t sure, but for a split second the expression on Jean’s face gave him the impression that Jean was really regretting having to say that, really regretting his earlier refusal. Levi didn’t push the issue, but for the first time he considered that maybe Jean was just as unprepared as they were for how much he had had to sacrifice in order to work on this project. And in that moment, Levi was suddenly impressed by the lengths to which Jean would go to follow through on his choices.

\---

After two months the piece was longer than Levi was tall, and a week and a half later, taller than Eren. By the time it had reached Jean’s height—he was only a few inches taller than Eren, but he was still a towering six-foot-four—Eren and Levi were beginning to wonder if the piece would ever end.

So it came as a pleasant surprise when Eren came home the next night to find Jean slowly binding off the last row. Levi came home twenty minutes later to Eren dancing for joy behind the couch while Jean tried to ignore him as he tied off the knot on the very last stitch. Now it was only a matter of time before Eren and Levi would learn the mysterious purpose behind the colossal knit, but Eren’s bad dancing aside, they kept their comments and questions to themselves.

Eren almost cried later that night, however, when they sat down on the couch after dinner and Jean quietly admitted that he would only spill the purpose to the whole ordeal once he had woven in all of the trailing ends from the nine skeins he had combined to make the piece—and that it might take him until tomorrow night to do so.

But he had good timing; the next day was Valentine’s Day and Levi and Eren were both looking forward to having their boyfriend back after two and a half months of knitting, confusion and loneliness. What better day to celebrate the return of their boyfriend than the “day of love” itself?

\---

“So…” Eren began hesitantly, “Is it done?”

Jean glared at him from where he was hunched over a few final loose ends while Levi shook his head at Eren from where he sat on the other side of Jean on their couch.

They had made it through a whole day and a very nice Valentine’s dinner without Jean touching the infernal blanket—Eren had admitted at this point that it probably was a blanket…or a shroud, either one—but as soon as they had sat down with some wine and a movie Jean had been right back at it again, the taller man so engrossed in finishing the piece that Levi had actually paused the movie and Jean hadn’t even noticed.

So now Eren and Levi were watching Jean attack the final threads with equal parts expectation and exasperation. The three of them were so ready for Jean to be done with that stupid tangle of yarn that Eren could almost taste the tension between them.

Speaking of tension, Eren wasn’t even sure how Jean had managed to stay sane after having knit so many stitches over so many hours over so many days over so many weeks over…

Eren was so caught up in his chagrin at how maddening the whole process must have been—more so for Jean than it even had been for him or Levi—that he startled when Jean suddenly jumped up off the couch and spread his arms out to display the full piece.

Waterfalls of variegated strands knitted into **fluffy** ribbed [columns](https://40.media.tumblr.com/937f2e78d7370b91528307a98ff29a3b/tumblr_inline_o3j5iyd7Dr1tpj153_500.jpg) stretched in Jean’s hands and pooled down at his feet as Eren and Levi took in their first look at the full project. After going so long with only the barest glimpses of the colors and just a vague idea of the full size size, both were left speechless at the final product. Levi found his voice first.

“What is it?” He asked, echoing the same question he had asked two and a half months prior.

“Ugh! What the hell does it look like?” Jean snapped in what Eren supposed was intended to be an exasperated tone, the effect dampened considerably by the smug, triumphant smile tugging up the corners of Jean's mouth and excitement lighting up his eyes.

“It’s an afghan. And I made it for Valentine’s Day. So…Happy Valentine’s Day” he finished, his grin turning slightly embarrassed at the unrelenting stares he received from both boyfriends as they tried to process the information.

There was a long pause, then Levi commented, “That is a hell of an afghan,” while Eren asked, “Why the hell is it so big, though?” at the same time.  Jean laughed and turned to drop back onto the couch between them. He gathered the afghan up in his arms and paused for a moment before he sat back with a sigh and began stretching the huge blanket over Eren and Levi’s legs.

“Yeah, it is pretty big, he admitted. "Bigger, even, than the pattern intended.” He smoothed the blanket over their laps, his expression thoughtful.

“But I wanted it to be big enough that we could all fit under it together,” he added seriously, meeting Eren's eye and then turning to Levi. “I wanted to make something we could all enjoy together. Just like I enjoy spending time with both of you…love spending time with both of you…”

He sighed as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry it turned into such a chore.” He winced. “I didn’t mean for this to become such a big deal, but I vastly overestimated how much time I would have between New Year’s and Valentine’s and…yeah. Sorry.

"Happy Valentine’s Day,” he finished lamely, throwing an arm over his eyes out of embarrassment or exhaustion or both.

Eren considered the soft layer thrown over his legs for a long second, then grabbed an edge and pulled it up to his chin, leaning over to tuck himself in close to Jean’s side. “You’re a dumbass,” he mumbled into Jean’s shoulder. “Love you too.”

He looked up when he felt Jean’s arm move to reach around his shoulders, and he stretched up to peck at Jean’s lips, melting into it when Jean leaned in to prolong the kiss.

On the other side Levi grabbed the remote, tugged the afghan up around his shoulders, and then rested his arm behind Jean’s neck, hand sifting gently through the fine hairs of Jean's undercut. Jean turned to Levi to kiss him as well.

Once they had broken apart and the three of them had settled in together under the massive blanket, Levi resumed the movie.

They only made in three-quarters of the way through, though, before Jean ended up snoring, his head tossed back against the headrest, while Levi dozed against his shoulder. Contemplating how best to drag his boyfriends to their room, Eren grinned as he ripped the giant afghan off of them both, threw it around himself like a cape, and walked off to their bedroom, calling over his shoulder that he intended to keep it all to himself that night if they didn’t come to bed before he passed out.

After a minute and a half of quiet cursing and muffled thuds of Levi and Jean turning off lights and locking up the apartment for the night, they joined him in the bedroom, already stripping down. But if the three of them ended up doing nothing more that night other than falling asleep together in nothing but their boxers under that oversized knit afghan, snuggled in close to each other, then that was fine by Eren. Anything, so long as they could enjoy it together.

_\---_

_Bonus:_

Eren walked in the next day to find Jean curled up on the couch, completely engulfed in the titanic afghan.

“Leviiii! Jean is being eaten alive by his afghan! Come here and help me slay it so we can save him from his terrible fate.”

Jean turned over and glared up at his boyfriend, and he heard Levi laugh from the kitchen before making a comment to the effect that since it had “already consumed Jean’s soul they might as well let it have the rest of him”

Jean huffed and turned over again, intent on getting a few more minutes of sleep before he had to leave for his next class, but a few moments later he felt the edge of his covering lift and a warm body slide in beside his. Eren pulled the blanket over them both and squeezed in close, pressing his lips to the nape of Jean’s neck and exhaling, sending shivers down the taller man’s spine.

“I thought I was being eaten by my blanket; are you here to be eaten as well?” Jean asked, voice muffled where his face was pressed into the soft layers of afghan.

“Nah, I thought I’d come in after you. You’ve got class in thirty minutes, right? Someone’s got to help pull you out,” Eren murmured into Jean’s skin.

“Somehow, I doubt it’s going to work out like that, Eren,” he responded wryly.

To Jean's surprise, Eren kept his word and managed to tickle and prod Jean just enough so that when his alarm went off, Jean had no trouble pulling himself out of the fluffy pile of yarn and boyfriend. Slightly annoyed at Eren for pestering him awake, but glad once he was up that the other man had, Jean trooped off to class just in time.

\---

Two hours later, Jean was surprised to walk in to find Eren still curled up with the afghan, his boyfriend now completely encased in the colorful synthetic wool. Actually, had he not seen the rise and fall of Eren breathing beneath the heaps of knitting piled on their couch, he wouldn’t have even known there was a person under there.

Levi had walked into the living room at the sound of the front door, but before Levi could speak, Jean put a finger to his lips and crept around the side of the couch, hovering over Eren’s still form. He saw Levi shake his head out of the corner of his eye but that didn’t stop Jean from jumping onto the heap of afghan then just as quickly hopping up again, laughing uproariously at the squawk of surprise and roar of outrage as Eren burst forth from the blankets and tried to tackle Jean back onto the couch. A few frantic moments later Eren choked out a breathless, “What the _fuck_ did you think you were doing?" before collapsing back onto the couch.

Jean collapsed beside him, both of them hopping up briefly when Levi yanked the afghan out from under their butts and began trying to fold the darn thing. Jean laughed. "Well, I saw that the Afghan had actually managed to eat you, so I was trying to wake you up so that you could bust your way out of there.” Eren rolled his eyes and let his head flop back against the rest.

“This blanket is a monster,” Levi added as he struggled to hold the corners he was folding lined up.

“Then I guess it’s a good thing Eren is just as much of a monster,” Jean laughed back, dodging when Eren threw an arm at his head. “And when it comes to Eren,” Jean continued, sitting up and shooting Eren a sultry smirk “I don’t mind it if _he_ tries to eat me alive.”

Eren huffed out a laugh. “I’m going to hold you to that. And you too,” he added, flopping an arm in the general direction Levi, who wore the ghost of a grin as he nodded in agreement with Jean’s statement. “I am holding the both of you to that.”

And he did. But neither Jean nor Levi expressed any regret for their choice after the fact, and Jean doubted that he ever would. He was in it for keeps with these fools, one way or another.

**Author's Note:**

>  **EDIT** : Work, tags, and summary updated 18 Apr 2016. Added some photographs in text of the [yarn](https://40.media.tumblr.com/94f90e209e0e05a322adeb4f4f03b3c4/tumblr_inline_o3j5j9cD5q1tpj153_500.jpg) and [pattern](https://40.media.tumblr.com/937f2e78d7370b91528307a98ff29a3b/tumblr_inline_o3j5iyd7Dr1tpj153_500.jpg) :3
> 
> This was written for a tumblr ask prompt, "Anonymous said: Ererijean, fluffy"  
> It wasn't supposed to be longer than three paragraphs, but then I got caught up in the idea and then...oops, how about three-thousand words or less ^_^;
> 
> The pattern Jean’s project is based off of can be found [here,](http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/homespun-stripes-afghan) by the way. I actually made a version of Jean’s afghan a couple of years back; it’s an easy pattern but it is _so time-consuming._ It took me over six months to complete, so the idea of trying to finish an even bigger piece in two...poor Jean!
> 
> My writing tumblr is [verbostrocity.](http://christmasriverswrites.tumblr.com/) Read, reblog and like this oneshot on tumblr [here.](http://christmasriverswrites.tumblr.com/post/139645204005/day-2-ship-acceptance-day-take-this-day-to) Visit my writing blog for more of my writing, previews and updates ;)


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